Glam Slam

If it weren’t for The Lambs Club and when I’m feeling old school, the bar at the Algonquin, I’d be at an utter loss when searching for a watering hole near my offices on the outskirts of Times Square and the Theatre District, an area littered with pubs, sports bars and cheesy hotel lounges with spaceship-worthy lighting.

Fortunately, the new Paramount Bar in the Paramount Hotel defies any such categorization. The small—by New York standards—ground floor space felt eons away from the 46th Street strip on which it is situated when I paid a visit at a preview party Tuesday night.

“The location was almost opposite to my vision. You walk out that door and it looks grimy 42nd Street, 8th Avenue. And you come in here and it’s beautiful,” said Susan Jaques who designed the black and crimson-hued space (the venue officially opens April 12th).

The bar’s entertainment director, Senem Sozen (as Jaques pointed out multiple times, just about everyone involved with Paramount Bar, from the General Manager to the engineer, is an attractive woman) oversees a rotating team of female DJs: as of now, Anna Cavazos plays a mix of disco, deep house and funk Wednesdays through Saturdays; Charlotte Balibar is on the decks Wednesdays and Thursdays with Euro & French pop, Brazilian and electro, and Nicole Leon takes over Fridays or Saturdays with pop, reggae and funk.

The one thing you won’t find at Paramount Bar? Flatscreens.

“When I walked in here it was all light, it had beige couches and it was a sports bar,” recalled Jaques, who declared “No TVs.” “The owner said, ‘What are you kidding? People like to come sit at the bar [and watch].’ And I said, ‘Not this one.’”